Skywalking Above the Abyss
by SwallowSword
Summary: He was one who precariously walked the line between good and bad. Swayed by a false sense of responsibility and a terrible hunger for revenge, he hunted his white haired nemesis to the ends of the earth. So when he finally pulled the trigger and the bullet found its mark, his whole purpose disappeared, and he fell into the abyss, the very one he had been staring into.
1. The Facade Crumbles

Disclaimer: I don't own Psycho Pass.

**Skywalk (Noun)**

_One of the many different forms of tightrope walking. This activity often takes place outdoors at great heights, between skyscrapers, gorges, mountains or other natural and man-made landscapes. The walker, of course, is at great risk of falling. _

_But then again, having death at your fingertips is a thrill in itself. _

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Summary: He was one who precariously walked the line between good and bad. Swayed by a false sense of responsibility and a terrible, ravenous hunger for revenge, he hunted his white haired nemesis to the ends of the earth. So when he finally pulled the trigger and the bullet found its mark, his whole purpose disappeared, and he fell into the abyss, the very one he had been staring into all along. AU storyline from the encounter with Shogo. Pairings undecided.

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The Facade Crumbles

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_I don't want Kogami-san to turn into a killer. _

The sky above her bled into a fading orange red. Her eyelids were heavy with fatigue, fluttering with the pain that plagued her body. Just a moment ago, she had felt his arms around her, gentle yet firm. She had known, then, that he wanted to kill. His veins coursed with the determination to chase Makishima Shogo down, filled with the desire, the _hunger _of chasing his prey until one of them caves under fatigue, under fear, falls into the awaiting clutches of death.

She had tried to look up at him, turned her weary neck and glanced in his direction, hoping that her eyes, brown and shimmering with unshed tears, untold volumes of pain and agony and fear and anticipation, would reach his heart.

He refused to look at her.

A blink, and then she had found herself lying on the asphalt, the smell of burnt rubber tires and baked tar invading her senses. She cast her mind back to a few minutes ago. Makishima had been in the truck and she had been clinging on for dear life.

Kogami had cried out, hadn't he? He had called her name. _Akane. _But the winds had snatched away her name, swirling them out of her reach, and his voice never reached her. Instead, ironically, she was being carried away, Makishima in the driver's seat, the road passing underneath her with a speed that promised death should she fall.

The shudders of the tires beneath her desperately clutching limbs had rattled her mind, shaking away the fear and filling her with a false hope. She had held Kogami-san's revolver in her right hand, the lone bullet popped in the chamber weighing heavily in her palm. The trigger had been hesitantly fingered, and then, with eyes half shut from the wind, shaking with fear and desperation, she had pulled it. The bullet had found its mark. The screech of tires had rung in her ears, and she had remember briefly being tossed into the air, a doll discarded by its master, until she hit the floor, soil filling her vision, hands clutching at the rough plant before her, blood leaking from her skin.

The click and rattle of a revolver startled out of her hazy reminiscing. Lifting her head slightly, blinking the red out from behind her eyelids, she studied the latent criminal before her carefully. Apprehension, anticipation. Kogami Shinya was one person she would never be able to read, although she should've expected as much from a wild dog whose slipped his collar.

He was standing before her impassively. Perhaps he had realized just how foolish he had been. Perhaps Kogami didn't want blood on his hands after all. Perhaps...She could only dare hope.

A hope that was dashed as the empty shells of the bullets rained down before her.

_He brought refills? _She wanted to murmur to himself. A laugh of disbelief threatened to escape from her throat. Just where had Kogami-san gotten hold of such weapons? Where did he learn how to use them? They were antiques, weapons from out of the bordered Japan's reach. With the Sibyl System scanning the every actions of its citizens, there should be no way Kogami would be able to procure such weaponry.

Right?

Kogami had managed to accomplish the impossible, after all. He had gotten shot by a shotgun and had survived. He was up and running a few days later, almost as if the wounds didn't bother him in the least. Kogami attained the impossible, fueled only by his need to kill, living off the hatred that boiled deep inside him. Her words hadn't reached him at all. His promise to stay as a detective had been hollower than the revolver that he now held in his hands. She heard the rattle of new bullets being slotted into the chambers and wanted to laugh again. He was filling his hollow wishes now with his own desire to continue the hunt, with dangerous gunpowder and the power to kill in his hands.

"N...No..." Her voice came out as weak, despicable even in her own ears. Her hands trembled, shook with the desire to reach up and hold him back, to stop him from making a mistake that she was _certain _he would regret.

"This is between the two of us." Kogami answered smoothly. She struggled upright, in time to see his back disappearing into the field. The crunch of his footsteps on modified produce faded away as the sun slowly sank beneath the hills. He would reach Makishima before the day ended, Akane knew. So she did the only thing she knew how to do; picked up the fallen dominator in front of her and left to find the latent criminal that she had to apprehend.

* * *

"Do you think you'll ever find someone who is able to replace me?"

_Everyone is replaceable, after all. Multiple people can play the same role. I have yet to see the splendor of human souls, although, Kogami Shinya, you have brought me so close to my goal. So close, yet so far, quite the shame indeed. Perhaps if I had been able to evade you this time, I would've finally seen the true beauty of determination. You would've gotten frustrated at my escape yet again, would you not? _

_We are both hunters in our own right, both so alike, and yet both of us are reaching towards a goal that we will never truly accomplish. _

"I sure hope not."

_As you should._

Kogami Shinya pulled the trigger.

* * *

"STOP!"

Akane was only a few steps too late. They had pulled the trigger at the same time, Kogami and her, a harmony that struck her as ironic as she watched Kogami fall with Makishima. It's a good thing her Dominator was stuck on non-lethal paralyzer mode. As soon as Kogami had pulled the trigger, his Psycho Pass would've increased so that he became a criminal, and if she hadn't locked it, Sibyl would've chosen to take his life.

The two of them toppled forward gracelessly, puppets robbed of their string.

"K...Kogami-san..." Her hands shook with uncertainty, even though the deed was done.

_Betrayal. _Her mind whispered. _Traitor. Kogami will hate you now. _

And yet, she could only feel relief, staring at the two criminals before her, one dying, one unconscious and robbed of his freedom. One black haired, one white haired, both hunter and prey and both hateful of the world around them. Both alone.

She shook her head and flicked at the watch on her wrist, waiting impatiently for the hologram to appear. She called for a medic team, voice steady even as clear droplets traced their way down her cheeks. Both of them needed to be treated, after all.

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A/N: This is my take on what would happen if the series had not ended the way it did. Tell me what you think! I'll be uploading the next chapter soon.


	2. Hollowed Vision

_It's funny, because for a moment, she thought she won. _

_That final shot leaving the chamber, the shudder as it buried itself in the thick rubber of the tyre. The squeal as the truck left the road and toppled over into the field of hyper oats. The metallic tang in her mouth, the gasping heaves of her chest and the lingering elation of victory. _

_And then the events had tumbled out of control, and Makishima had slipped through her grasp as sand does through fingers, and she was left behind by the two predators once more, a hunter without a gun. _

_It was then that she truly understood. As Makishima walked off into the lightening horizon, as Kogami followed with sure, determined footsteps, and as she desperately stumbled after the two unreachable hunters in front of her, she realized that the abyss that she had tasted wasn't her terrain. It belonged to the two of them, a clash of white and black, a conflict that would never cease until one brought the other to his knees. _

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Hollowed Vision

* * *

When he opened his eyes, black stretched out beyond him in an impenetrable blanket.

He shook his head a few times, as if he were hoping that his eyes would adjust to the dark. He waited patiently, waited for blurred lines to appear, for the sure outlines of the world to etch themselves into his mind once more. He waited.

Shuddering, he reached up and stroked his fingertips lightly over his eyes. His eyelids weren't covering his amber orbs. No, they were up, as surely as curtains were drawn before the dawn of a new day. So? What was the darkness that enveloped his being? What was the black canvas of the world that had been drawn over the windows to his soul?

"It's three in the afternoon, Shogo-san."

His ringing laugh was tinged with a hint of desperation and resignation.

"I've become blind." He whispered. Her quiet sighs accompanied him as he slowly sank into the darkness that now ruled his life.

It seems that the abyss that he had been wading through had finally swallowed him.

* * *

Akane sat with her back pressed against the wall. She could feel the cool of the metal panels seeping through her thin blouse. Her black jacket lay to the side, folded neatly. It'd started to feel stifling lately, and she wasn't sure if this was because the weather was turning warmer, or if she was being driven into a corner herself.

She held her dominator limply in one hand, the muzzle of the gun pointed towards one of the various brains in Sibyl's collection. **Psycho Pass Reading Not Available. **The shimmering hologram screen before her eyes was telling her. **Not a Latent Criminal. The Trigger is Locked. **

"I gained nothing from my visit today." She was in the middle of telling the Sibyl System about her visit to Makishima. She had watched as a weird desolation had crossed his features upon realizing that he was blind. With today's technology, they could easily fix it. A few implants here, some weaving of the nerves together there and he could probably see again.

But nobody wanted to help a criminal.

_That response had been calculated. He has yet to give up any information. He is stubborn. _Sibyl replied.

"Not only that, I think he's still recovering from his injuries. We can't expect too much of a man who had just been shot three days ago. His mind may still be in some kind of shock. And he feel unconscious shortly after I spoke to him, so I didn't manage to question him thoroughly as I would've liked."

_That is to be expected. There is no change in his Psycho Pass. It remains under 100. Shortly, doctors will deem him operable, and he will join us. _

Akane couldn't help but grimace at that, and as if the collection of bubbling brains could see her, Sibyl let out a mechanical chortle that rang in her mind. What Sibyl must've meant by the phrase 'join us' must be the process of removing Makishima Shogo's brain from his body and then attaching it to the super computer that stood before her. A collection of individuals who have been placed together to run a series of tests, individuals who were all once unaffected by this very system.

_Human bodies have limitations. A calculating computer does not. _Sibyl informed her. She nodded dumbly and stood to leave. Just as she turned, she remembered why she had gone after Makishima in the first place. It wasn't in vengeance for her friend's death, although Yuki's violent passing had pushed her along in her determination. It was so that she could earn freedom for her fellow detective, Kogami Shinya.

Just the thought of his name sent a twist of worry through her stomach. As soon as she had brought the two of them back into the MWPSB facilities, a group of dominator toting individuals had marched into the garage and had taken them into their custody. No matter how much she begged, she hadn't been allowed to see Kogami yet.

"You have to keep your half of the bargain, Sibyl. We agreed that if I captured Makishima, you would re-judge him and grant him a life other than that of being executed." Akane held her breath in anticipation. If Sibyl agreed, then perhaps Kogami wouldn't have reason to view her as antagonistic, even though she had shot him with the dominator.

_As of this moment, the deal does not stand. We asked you to refrain from harming the subject, but you have allowed him to become shot. Until he becomes part of Sibyl, Kogami Shinya's crime coefficient will not be lowered and his status will stay the same. _

Akane squeezed the trigger of the dominator in frustration. "You can't just twist your word-"

_Our judgement is final._

She wanted to scream, to lunge at the brains that held the lives of countless human beings with their decisions. She wanted to smash the jars that held these _abominations _to human nature. She wanted to destroy everything. Tears of frustration gathered in the corners of her eyes, but she swiped them away angrily with the back of her hand.

"You better keep your promise, otherwise I'll make sure to shoot Makishima _myself_ next time." She warned.

Sibyl only laughed robotically.

_You wouldn't dare pull the trigger, _came the amused reply.

* * *

Upon reaching her apartment, Akane collapsed onto her bed and spent five minutes emptying her thoughts and feelings.

After the...incident, she had turned into what Shion had jokingly called a 'Kogami-copy'. She moved out of her old apartment and had moved into a high-rise skyscraper condo right next to the MWPSB building. She was so close to her workplace that she only had to go to her bedroom window to be able to see the floor where she worked everyday. It had become routine to stare at the office in the minutes before she fell asleep.

She wondered if she was really becoming a Kogami copy. Was this how the man lived his life, right up to the point where he shot Makishima?

When her mind was well and truly blank, she found the strength to stumble to her feet and go about her nightly routine.

Make yourself dinner. She shuffled aimlessly towards the refrigerator and gave it a cursory glance. There wasn't anything inside that she particularly wanted to eat.

Take a shower. The pounding of the water upon her bare back calmed her somewhat, although the heat from the water failed to touch the cold that lined her heart. She was frozen in indecision, a deadly self-hate that allowed her to doubt her every action.

Drink a cup of water, and then head to the study to look over some more reports. When she was soaking the tea bag, a splash of hot water hit her pale skin. She glanced at it numbly. The pain had hardly registered in her mind. The water disappeared quickly, leaving nothing but a small pink circle upon her skin. She shook her head and shuffled to the study, where she locked herself with her reports for the next few hours.

* * *

It was around three o'clock when she finally yawned and stretched. She'd been briefing a case about domestic abuse, where two apparently compatible partners had suddenly turned on each other. The husband had managed to kill his wife before the authorities found out via a huge spike in his Psycho Pass, and tomorrow Unit 1 was going to search his apartment to determine how exactly he had killed his wife. The report assured that the crime scene had been left untouched.

_Well, it's more convenient this way, although I'll have to get my hands dirty once more. _

It had come to the point where she no longer felt anything, even if she was snapping on gloves to reach into the entrails of a dismembered corpse, or feeling about a shattered bone to get an idea of how the victim had been hurt. Her senses were numbed to the sight and smell of blood; they seemed to her no more than holo-decorations for the floors and walls.

As she stood up and filed the report neatly back into her bag, a knock at her door startled her.

Immediately, she had her back against the wall, one hand shuffling over her desk to grasp for anything that could be used as a weapon. The room fell silent, so silent that she could only hear the ticking of her clock.

Her fingers reached something thin and sharp. She wrapped her hand around it securely, and took her eyes off the door to glance down briefly. It was a pair of scissors. _Better than nothing, _she thought.

The knock came again, sharper and more urgent this time. Akane's nerves were going haywire. She twitched and pressed her lips in a thin line. There was nobody who could possibly be knocking at her door at this hour.

She quietly made her way towards the door. Scissors gripped firmly in hand, she took a few deep breaths and waited with bated breath, one hand on the doorknob. After counting to three, she yanked the door open. Her brown eyes searched the empty doorway for a shadow of movement.

Nobody was there.

_Paranoia? _She immediately questioned herself. Perhaps it was just another late worker heading home. Even as her mind considered the possibility, she was shaking it off. Her ears hadn't deceived her. It was obviously coming from her apartment.

As she closed the door, she heard something knocking against her neighbor's door and she smiled. Either way, the problem had moved on now. She shut the door and locked it securely, moving one of the dining table chairs in front of the door. If anyone came in , he or she would first be delayed by the chair, and the scraping of furniture against the floor would alert her anyway. Better safe than sorry, she reasoned, even though she couldn't rid herself of the suspicion that the knocking was actually more than it seemed.

Finally, she stretched. Akane headed to bed and thought no more of it, until she woke up three hours later gasping for breath and realizing that her apartment was on fire.

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**A/N: **Sorry for the late update! It was quite hard to get back into writing this fic, which is why it's progressing a bit slowly (My pacing is a little of OTL I haven't written in a while...) but hopefully things will pick up from here.

Thanks to all those who reviewed and favorited/followed this story!

Reviewers: **Akuma Shoujo23, Magpies and Pie, Lilly, Guest, AruuYuda-ShoriKyuyu **and **astraea.12**.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you continue to enjoy!


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